In order to print an electronic document (ED), it is often necessary to generate one or more raster images for the ED. Generation of these raster images is time consuming, computationally expensive, and can overburden the printer selected by the user to print the ED. Other print processing resources that are available to the user may remain idle (i.e., play no part) while the printer selected by the user is generating the raster images and the hardcopy of the ED.
An ED may have various types of content (e.g., text, clipart, images, etc.). Moreover, different portions of the ED may have different types of content. Some print processing resources are specialized to process one type of content and are able to do so more quickly than a generic print processing resource. Although users are interested in printing quickly, users are also interested in selecting the printer that will generate the hardcopy (e.g., the printer located closest to the user), and do not consider the capabilities of other print processing resources.